Our Christmas rehoming period was very exciting.
Jasper and Hudson, our beautiful dogs have found new homes, along with Cynthia (now known as Violet) and kittens - Chip, Timtam, Snowball all finding new homes.

We still have Fergus, a lovely dog who unfortunately is finding it difficult to find his new home. Everyone who meets him loves him (except for cats of course!), hopefully he will be the next to find his new home.

The past few days have been busy with vet visits and some serious grooming. Dylan is a shitzu x and a pound dog who came to me in a mass of matted, muddy fur and fleas. A new haircut and what a cutie he has turned out to be. A really nice young dog, who  loves the company of people, cats and dogs but doesnt cope very well on his own for very long.      Eric is our other new dog, (a shitzu x maltese)  is now in foster care with a lovely family and will continue his road to recovery from serious neglect. He continues to amaze me with his determination and is a very inspirational boy as he copes with his near blindness and skin problems. Although his problems are treatable (with ongoing care), many people have said he should be euthanised, simply because he will take awhile to re-home and because he is almost 7. I have faith that someone out there will see past those conditions and see the beautiful natured happy and proud dog that he is. After only a few days in care with us he has already grown back a small amount of fur on his tail area, which is very exciting to see.

The road to 2007 has been amazing. Less than 6 weeks ago South West Animal Rescue was just a concept in my mind, now we go into this year with huge plans to continue the growth of the group.

We will soon have memberships available to anyone wishing to support our work, plenty of fundraising ideas to work on, a sponsorship program for individual animals and advertising/marketing ideas will be put into action. We can expect a growing community presence this year through various media outlets which is very exciting.

Having said that, huge numbers of animals are still being turned away as we simply do not have the funds or the room to take them into our care. Foster carers and money for vet bills are the 2 main keys for the continued success and growth of South West Animal Rescue. If your unsure if foster care is for you, why not call anyway and find out a little more about it. You could be saving the life of one of the many unwanted, neglected and abandoned animals in the South West.

Ultimately our goal will be to have an established shelter. Many people have asked when this will happen. The issue with this is finding suitable land that we can legally put kennels and a cattery on. Already I have had offers of free help to build the premises and building materials  can be donated through sponsers and grants - we just need somewhere to put it!! Although the foster care program will continue to grow and become more established, whether its a year, 5 years or 20 years from now (gee I hope its not that long) that is where South West Animal Rescue will be heading.

I envisage it to be a sanctuary of healing, rehabilitation, recovery and finally re-homing for all our beautiful animals who come to us. I know there are many people around willing to volunteer at such an establishment to ensure the happy and safe journey that these animals will take and the journey that we, as volunteers and supporters will take to get there,  begins now.

"The question is not can they reason? nor can they talk? But rather, can they suffer?
Jeremy Bentham